Topics

When you regard an author as the best of her generation, and among the best of any generation, and you read just about everything she's ever written - which includes, in the case of Joyce Carol Oates, dozens and dozens of novels and short-story collections and books of essays and literary criticism and published journals - you start to think, "Well, that's it. I know her, backwards and forward and sideways. Nothing new here." Not so fast. Just before Joyce and I ascended to the stage at the Harold Washington Public Library March 31 for the sold-out Tribune event, we had time for a brief, casual chat. I revealed that I was looking forward to the NCAA basketball...

Related "Harold Washington" Articles

When you regard an author as the best of her generation, and among the best of any generation, and you read just about everything she's ever written - which includes, in the case of Joyce Carol Oates, dozens and dozens of novels and short-story...

Richard Daley leaves office this month as one of the most ambitious mayors Chicago ever had, a political heir who embraced and transcended his birthright but whose hands-on drive to improve the city he loved did not always match his reach.
Chicago's...

"… And as we enter this new season, it's time to leave behind old setbacks, disappointments and battles. Because in the campaign for a better Chicago, we're all allies. Our common opponents are crime and ignorance, waste and fraud, poverty and...

Rahm Emanuel's inaugural celebration will be as much about setting a tone for how he wants Chicagoans to perceive his administration as about commemorating his ascendancy to mayor.
The planning team is going for festive, but not too festive. After all,...

Call him the anti-Ambien.
If it's sleep you crave, steer clear of Marcus Sakey. Start one of his books at bedtime, and you can forget about slumber.
"I love the idea that a book can hook someone that way, that it can send you into work exhausted...

We're delighted to welcome everyone to the 28th edition ofthe Chicago Tribune'sPrinters Row Lit Fest, the largest annual gathering of book lovers between the coasts.
Appropriately, the historic Printers Row neighborhood in the South Loop is again the...

This story by William Mullen orginally ran in the Aug. 17, 1986, Tribune Sunday Magazine. At 9:30 a.m. on Friday, June 13, three men left the entrance to Navy Pier and began moving west along Grand Avenue. The three were old soldiers, the...

In one of his lesser known — but still exquisite — books, first published in 1992, David McCullough writes about painter Frederic Remington, an artist who captured the last glimmers of the twilight of the American West of the 19th century, a place of...

The recent controversy over Ald. Edward Burke’s bodyguard detail has focused attention on Chicago’s politically rancorous Council Wars era, and Burke himself nodded toward that time during discussions today about the city’s upcoming 175th...

Former Mayor Richard Daley’s temporary security detail will be evaluated again this summer to see if he still needs Chicago police officers assigned to him for his safety, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday.
The timetable on Daley’s detail came as Emanuel...

One of the biggest criticisms of the local food movement is that its produce costs too much, putting it out of reach to those who may need it most.With more Americans relying on food stamps (called LINK in Illinois) today than at any other time in our...

Former Mayor Richard Daley's security detail has been reduced to three police officers, two of whom will be on call to transport former first lady Maggie Daley to and from doctor appointments and the hospital, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said today.Chicago's...

A 21-year-old motorist was killed this morning in a violent, three-vehicle crash on the city's South Side, police said.The collision happened just before 1 a.m. in the 400 block of East 47th Street, just a short distance from the Harold Washington...

Chicago Public Schools' plan to build an elementary school on polluted property in the shadow of the Chicago Skyway and an expiring coal-fired power plant near the Indiana border is raising the ire of parents in the working-class East Side neighborhood....

Lately, I've been trying to cure myself of my packrat tendencies and have been sorting through boxes of papers and mementos I've amassed over the years. In the box I most recently opened, I found an old Comiskey Park ticket stub from a Sox game I attended...

An imprisoned top adviser and fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich admitted to conduct that could have brought about federal scrutiny, but he disputed the charges a federal jury convicted him of in 2008. "I have done things I could have been...

Ahead of the heatwave expected to bring 100-degree temperatures to the area, Chicago Public School officials have canceled summer school classes at 10 schools that lack air conditioning.Classes have been canceled at the following schools: Altgeld, 1340 W....

For a second time in two weeks, the summertime heat has led to the cancellation of Chicago Public School summer classes, officials said.
CPS chief executive officer Jean-Claude Brizard has ordered summer school classes cancelled at 18 schools that do not...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to put a long standing Chicago practice on the books to ensure that police detain only undocumented immigrants who are suspected or convicted criminals.The symbolic ordinance Emanuel proposed Tuesday would allow city police to...